Some of the companies I have invested in include 23andMe (personal genome information) and Keas (personal health-and-wellness plans).
He is running an experiment, called the Personal Genome Project, in which other people are encouraged to do so, too.
Audaciously named the Personal Genome Machine (PGM), the silicon-based device is the smallest and cheapest DNA decoder ever to hit the market.
The Personal Genome Project confirmed that 97% of the names matched those in its database if nicknames and first name variations were included.
FORBES: Harvard Professor Re-Identifies Anonymous Volunteers In DNA Study
At the heart of the personal genome machine is a silicon chip with 21 million transistors on it--the equivalent of a desktop computer circa 1995.
Church is running a personal genome project that has gathered 10 volunteers who have agreed to have their genetic information made public on the Web.
But the Personal Genome Machine, if it can meet its non-stellar specs, could open up genomics to individual researchers who are locked out research right now.
Now, he thinks he has found the perfect tool: a new DNA sequencing device called the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, made by Life Technologies of Carlsbad, Calif.
His Personal Genome Project makes no privacy promises at all.
FORBES: Harvard Professor Re-Identifies Anonymous Volunteers In DNA Study
He has moved to embrace new gene-deciphering technology as one of the PGP-10 the first ten participants in the Personal Genome Project being run by Harvard Professor George Church.
Software firm Autodesk is sponsoring some of the aspects of the research and Autodesk Research codesigned the demo app in collaboration with the Knight Lab and the Personal Genome Project.
"It's great that somebody is showing people we can do this, " says Harvard scientist George Church, whose own Personal Genome Project will start putting the genetic information of 10 volunteers on the Internet as early as this fall.
Church, who started the Personal Genome Project and is founder of the gene-scanning company Knome, envisions a Wikipedia-style model for interpreting the genome, where experts (using their real namea) collaborate online to help people interpret their genome results.
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At the recent Advances in Genome Biology and Technology in Marco Island, Florida, the focus was on the new, low-end machines like MiSeq and the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, which was the subject of this Forbes cover story.
Quick recap: his new device, the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine, is a less expensive machine that provides more limited DNA information than can be had from current devices sold by Illumina of San Diego and Life Technologies of Carlsbad, Calif.
Professor Latanya Sweeney, director of the Data Privacy Lab at Harvard, along with her research assistant and two students scraped data on 1, 130 people of the now more than 2, 500 who have shared their DNA data for the Personal Genome Project.
FORBES: Harvard Professor Re-Identifies Anonymous Volunteers In DNA Study
From the onset, the Personal Genome Project, set up by Harvard Medical School Professor of Genetics George Church, has warned participants of the risk that someone someday could identify them, meaning anyone could look up the intimate medical histories that many have posted along with their genome data.
FORBES: Harvard Professor Re-Identifies Anonymous Volunteers In DNA Study
Expecting personal-genome services like 23andMe and Navigenics to be licensed is not unreasonable.
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